Lack of English speaking police staff leave foreigners frustrated in Turkey

A lack of English-speaking staff and long waiting hours at the Istanbul Police Department’s Foreigners Bureau have left many non-Turks frustrated at the poor service on vital matters such as residency permits.

“I had to renew my residence permit and went to the Foreigners Bureau. There wasn’t a single police officer who spoke English. They are working without communicating with people. That’s why the bureau is full of people who are angry,” K.F., an American citizen living in Turkey, told daily BirGün on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old said he had to visit the bureau twice before he was handed a piece of paper telling him to come back the next day.

K.F. added that he thought the message was his residence permit itself because he did not speak Turkish at the time.

“I was eventually informed of the situation by one of my Turkish friends. What followed thereafter was no less than an ordeal, however, as I had to visit the bureau again several times over, and for hours at a time. Even then I had to wait for up to five or six hours before being told to come back the next day,” he said.

Meanwhile, other foreigners who spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News on condition of anonymity also confirmed the same accounts.

“The long waiting hours are a major problem. Plus the lack of officers who speak English makes the situation even worse,” one person told the Daily News. “Not everybody who goes there is a native English speaker either. There are people from Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka or Somalia and they don’t know English at all,” the source said.

The bureau oversees many affairs regarding foreigners in the country, such as the renewal of residence permits or helping tourists who lose their passports. The impersonal bureaucracy, however, has spurred other ways to circumvent official apathy, such as agencies who procure the required documents from the bureau in exchange for money.

The Daily News attempted to contact the bureau, but its calls went unanswered.

“During the past few years, I have chosen not to go there but instead do this process through companies,” said C.H., another foreigner. C.H also drew attention to the wild fluctuations in permit prices. “One month, it costs 130 Turkish Liras, [while] the next month it costs 400 euros, then it becomes cheaper again,” he said.


/Hurriyet Daily News/